Welcome to Austin!!

It’s that time of year when Austin is inundated with famous people from the film world, the music world and the internet techie world.  If you’re visiting Austin and don’t have anything to do, come and make yourself at home and knit or crochet for a while!!  Show me your wristband and save 15%!

I see a lot of people writing every day on Facebook or on their blogs in November about the things they are Thankful for – I feel like we do a pretty good job of that all year long here at The Knitting Nest.  We help with many groups all year long and this year has been a stellar year for donations.

            We have gotten a MOUNTAIN of knitted and crocheted scarves for The Texas Special Olympics – two of them, by SuJo Plassman, are particularly gorgeous and have gotten lots of attention!!  We have a new batch of red and grey yarn and the deadline is not until December 30^th so keep ‘em coming!

            We now have a little Christmas tree in the store adorned with names of foster children from Texas Mentor.  Many of these children are in homes that a couple of extra presents would be a great help so please take a minute when you are in the store and see if one of these children call out to you!  Please take a minute and look at their website. And while I’m talking about it, if YOU, or someone you know, are interested in becoming foster parents please let me know. They need homes for all ages of children and some of them are in desperate situations.

            And, finally, this morning we got our “adopted” family from Saint Louise House!!  This was such a wonderful experience last year and I am expecting everyone to do just as wonderful a job again this year! This year is going to be a little more challenging….we have gotten a family of three this year.  The mom is 51 and all she asked for was a Kohls gift card and a Giant Crockpot so I figured we can do the same thing we did last year: The store will buy the crockpot – YOU GUYS bring in a recipe on a 3×5 recipe card for something your family loves cooked in the crockpot and the dry ingredients to make it all in a big ziplock bag with the recipe name written on the outside. Or next time you are at the grocery store buy a $10 gift card. Last year we were able to give our family almost $200 in grocery gift cards to go along with the HUGE box of food! Which brings me to the challenging part of our family – they have two children – a 17 year old young man and an 8 year old girl. The 17 year old has asked for a football, a gift card from Kohls or a refill card for Virgin mobile.  The 8 year old has asked for art supplies, animal key chains for her backpack or a Target gift card.  I am hoping that three wonderful knitters or crocheters will step forward and volunteer to make each of the family members a really cool hat and scarf.  And I will have three stockings in the store again this year for little things so maybe small things will appeal to someone too!  I am going to write to area businesses again and hopefully we can score another Christmas dinner from Bill Miller.  I am also going to try and get a large ArtBin storage container donated – so all you crafty people look through your supplies and bring in any UNUSED things that we can fill up the container with for the little girl.

So please, take the next 40 days thinking about how lucky you are that you never had to make the decision to stay with a man who was physically or mentally abusing you so you would have a place to live – or leave with the clothes on your back in the middle of the night – with nowhere to go – to protect your children.

Your life may not be perfect, but remember, it sure could be a hell of a lot worse.

But were afraid to drop the stitches?

Join us Saturday for a modified Clapotis Class. We are using a pattern for a scarf version for the class – it just takes one skein of sock yarn – and you will be through all the “hard parts” before the class is over!  It makes a wonderful gift for teachers, co-workers, bosses – just about anyone.  And it’s the most popular pattern on Ravelry! As of today there are 19,540 examples on Ravelry.  You can make it out of any weight yarn and it is simply spectacular.  Go to knitty.com and print out your pattern and join us tomorrow at 1!

Purple Stitch Project.org

Do you know anyone with Epilepsy?   If you know me then raise your hand. 

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy when I was a freshman in college.  It’s a long story that has a lot of ups and downs in it  – the worst part was I couldn’t drive until it was totally under control for six months and that took quite a while.  The best part about it was, since I couldn’t drive, I asked this really cute guy at work to take me to a concert one July and 8 months later we were married.  That was over 30 years ago! 

Anyway, local crochet guru Vickie Howell Campbell has a young son who has recently been diagnosed with Epilepsy.  She wanted to raise the public awareness about Epilepsy and form a community for the kids with this disorder so they can communicate with each other and share experiences and know that they are not alone.  So, the Purple Stitch Project was born.

Right now they need two things – they need knitted or crocheted items to raise money for an auction and they need purple items to give to the kids. 

Please go here and read all about the PSP and take a few minutes to make an item for one of the kids or for the auction. 

The Knitting Nest is proud to be helping with this cause and will be a collection point for as long as they need us.

The Knitting Nest has applied for a $250,000 grant from Chase Bank in a nationwide contest – each applicant must get at least 250 votes before the grant committee will even READ my application. 

That’s why I need your help.  Please go here: www.missionsmallbusiness.com  : After clicking “Support” on the home page, look for our business and vote for us!

Why help?  Small businesses everywhere are closing at an alarming rate – everyone is trying to save money and sometimes that comes at the expense of a hobby – or knitters are tempted to buy cheaper yarn from catalogs or websites.  But do those catalogs provide you with classes, or places to meet other knitters? Neither do those big stores where you can buy cheaper yarn but no one in the store knows the difference between a double pointed needle and a hypodermic needle.  And those “Yarn-Shop” websites that are run out of peoples garages don’t have to pay rent, or utilities, or insurance like I do. Vote for us and it will be a vote for all the privately owned businesses that struggle every month to make it.

I would take this money and create two new jobs and have a knitting teacher on staff ALL THE TIME! We will have more classes for less money!  And yarn…..oh baby..I will fill this place up with the most beautiful yarn you’ve ever seen.   Please vote for The Knitting nest and the SHARE YOUR VOTE!  Tell all your knitting friends to vote for your local yarn shop! 

Thank-You.

Is there anyone out there who has not read The Yarn Harlot’s post this week about the Color Affection Shawl - (or Color Infection, as she is calling it) or noticed that it has been picked as someone’s favorite over 11,000 times on Ravelry?  It’s an amazing combination of plain garter stitch and some of the most beautiful color choices I have ever seen. 

This morning the lovely group of ladies who knit here on Saturdays proposed that we have a Knit-Along with this shawl and I thought it was a lovely idea!  Yarn in groups of three began springing up all over my desk and we were suddenly overwhelmed with choices!!  It’s a good thing the Opening Ceremony is not until the end of July because this is going to take some planning, choosing, pondering…..all those things that take a while!

So….after a few quick emails I have a very hard to get actual-yarn color sample ring coming in the mail from Pagewood Farm.  It will be much easier to pick your colors if they are right there in front of you.  It takes three skeins of sock yarn and I figured this would be our best choice for gorgeous colors!  They’re wonderful to work with and just heavenly for a small shop like mine.

I will start taking orders for yarn as soon as the ring gets here and will take orders for about 6 weeks – in the middle of June I will make sure everyone who wants to has placed an order (you don’t have to make this shawl – you can knit anything or just order sock yarn while it’s here to look at!) and then we’ll get the yarn all dyed up fresh and lovely for the Summer Olympics!

Mark your calendars now for the Cast On / Opening Ceremony – Friday Night – July 27th!

I will post a picture here once we get the color ring so you can come in and see it in person! 

We are going to start a new game at The Knitting Nest called Washrag Tag!

There will be two teams with ten members on each team.  The game will begin as soon as we have 20 people sign up for Round 1.  Each team will have a box that will contain a ball of cotton yarn and a Team Tool Kit.  In the tool kit will be a pattern booklet with 4 knitting patterns and 4 crochet patterns for a dishcloth (you can choose which pattern you want to make) a yarn needle for weaving in ends, a set of stitchmarkers and a team journal. 

The first member of each team will pick up their box, complete the washrag, add some goodies for the next person on their team and write a note in the journal about which pattern you used, etc.  They will then come to the store, buy a new skein of yarn for the box and before they leave the store the next member will be emailed that they have been “tagged”.

The members of the first team to complete “the race” will all get a coupon for 20% off their next purchase and one lucky member of the winning team will be chosen to win a gift basket!

Hurry in to sign up!!

OH! The dishcloths will all be donated to Saint Louise House!

National Crochet Month may be over but we are still collecting Granny Squares! 

Bring one in or come in and use the yarn in our basket of Cascade 220 and make one!